International acts praise Lancaster’s ‘awesome’ music festival

Lancaster Castle played host to a wide selection of genres on Friday afternoon and early evening as the pubs and bars geared up to party in earnest later.

Brazilian duo Estrela Leminski and Teo Ruiz took the stage at 2pm on Friday afternoon.

The couple, both 34, from Curitiba, have several gigs over the weekend.

Teo said: “It’s an an awesome place, very beautiful. We play what we call poetry rock.

We have a full band back at home but when we play like this we hope the audience hears the poetry in the music, even if they can’t understand the words. In this format we think the poetry of the songs emerge.”

London based Portraits, fromted by Jeremy and Lorraine Millington, performed at the music festival last year, and were invited back to play five shows this year.

Jeremy studied music at Lancaster University, and lamented the closure of the university’s music department, quipping the music festival could be a fair trade off. They performed at 3pm on the castle stage.

Jeremy said: “The music festival seems to have changed the whole nature of the town. The whole feeling has been rejigged.”

Lorraine said: “After last year’s festival Ben Ruth said ‘see you next year with bells on’ so we had to come back. This year has been fantastic, and we’ve got five gigs over the weekend. What’s so good about this festival is it’s free and allows people from all walks of life to hear live music, and the musicians are treated so well.”

Ben Ruth, the festival’s organiser, said it was “an honour” to perform with James Mackie and his Hammond organ on the castle stage as Get Carter and The Convulsions.

New Jersey, USA, based Sensory Hoverload closed the castle stage on Friday night with a heavy dose of funk.

The festival continues into the early hours of Saturday October 10 and until Monday night, in outdoor and indoor venues right across Lancaster. There are hundreds of acts to choose from.

Visit www.lancastermusicfestival.com for a full schedule, pick up a brochure in one of the venues, or download the App.